


The Huntress Becomes the Hunted

by gingayellow



Series: The Better Fate [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-07
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2019-01-30 13:44:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12654708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingayellow/pseuds/gingayellow
Summary: Shiro wants to be helpful to Allura's peace efforts. He wants to be a good husband to Keith (arranged marriage or not). But the Galra Empire won't let go of their Champion so easily. [Shiro/Keith, reference trauma, mind control]





	The Huntress Becomes the Hunted

Title: The Huntress Becomes the Hunted  
Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender  
Characters/Pairing: Shiro/Keith  
Rating: PG-13  
Disclaimer: Not mine, anything mentioned here by name isn't mine  
Warnings: Referenced trauma, mind control  
Notes: Sequel to “The Better Fate.” In case you don’t want to read that: Shiro was captured and ‘recruited’ by the Galra. When the war with Altea ends, they offer him in an arrange marriage to Altean General Keith to strengthen the peace. @_@

\--

Shiro eyed his reflection warily. Galran armor was different than what he wore when he served Princess Allura, and not just because of the darker colors. While the Alteans had a martial history, they had eventually embraced protecting peace over glorious combat. Thus, their armor was as comfortable as it was practical: the ideal for the diplomat in possibly dangerous environment. 

War was part of the Galra identity, and every heavy gauntlet, collar, and chest plate was meant to remind you of that. You weren’t a person. You were a weapon for the Empire, and nothing else.

He was nothing else.

“Shiro.”

He took a deep breath, grateful that Keith hadn’t snuck up on him. “I’m fine,” he assured Keith. He didn’t turn around, but he could see Keith’s worried expression in the mirror. “I was just thinking.” Keith frowned, so Shiro smiled and added. “You know, we are married now. You don’t have to lurk in the corners of our room.”

“That wasn’t your choice, Shiro—and this will always be **your** room.” Still, Keith sat on the couch. Good. They were almost acting like they did before Shiro was captured.

Shiro had accepted and even appreciated what Keith had done. He’d given up his own freedom, maybe forever (Altean culture, a culture Shiro and Keith both served, didn’t forbid second marriages, but Alteans were… very invested in the idea of first, true love) to save Shiro from the Galra. But Keith still acted like he’d doomed Shiro to a fate worse than death, even a month after the ceremony. They didn’t share a bedroom—in fact, Keith was sleeping Hunk and Shay’s guest room ever since their marriage, despite Shiro’s protests. 

He would have assumed Keith hated the marriage… except Keith was the ideal spouse. He kept Shiro safe while he recovered. Despite their different living arrangements, he always seemed to know when Shiro was having a nightmare, or was too scared to move. He helped Shiro clean their chambers, trained with him, went riding with him. He also cooked dinner for Shiro every night—it was plainer fare than what Hunk prepared for them on free days, but there was a charm to Keith’s cooking even Hunk couldn’t replicate.

It was… it was everything Shiro had wanted, before everything went bad. 

But even if Keith was being wonderful, he saw it as a duty. Not a marriage.

Shiro wouldn’t push.

He would, however, sit next to Keith on the couch. “We should get going,” he said to himself more than Keith. “After all, it’s hard to represent the marriage that will lead to peach between the Galra Empire and Altean Coalition if we’re not there.”

“I could tell them you’re not feeling well.”

“Keith, I appreciate the sentiment, but I’m feeling better.”

Keith bit his lip. “Shiro, someone you, um… don’t like will be there.” He was trying to ease the blow, but the realization that Ezor, Lotor’s general in the war and ambassador in the tenuous peace, the woman who had delighted in ripping Shiro open figuratively and literally, would be sitting next to him made the world go grey and cold.

“Shiro, are you—”

“I am fine,” he managed, forcing himself to breathe deeply. She had planned this. She wanted to break him, in public—and once she had a way to prove that his marriage to Keith was ‘hurting’ him somehow, then Lotor would invade.

He could not allow that.

“I can’t allow you to hurt yourself like this,” Keith’s tone was resolute. “I’ll talk to Allura, she’ll figure something out.”

Now Shiro forced himself to smile, left hand resting on Keith’s own palm. “She won’t have to.”

\--

“General Shirogane.” Ezor was all smiles. “Married life seems to be treating you well.”

“That’s because I have a wonderful husband.” Because they needed to act like newlyweds, Shiro took Keith’s right hand, kissing it tenderly. Keith must’ve been a better actor than Shiro remembered, because he blinked in surprised, flushed, then looked away—just what you would expect from someone who was seasoned in the art of war, but in the exciting/terrifying stages of a marriage. “I was a little worried about reentering Altean society, but Keith and the Princess have been nothing but kind to me.” 

Keith squeezed Shiro’s hand. “You make it easy to be kind.” Shiro knew that it was all an act, but when Keith gazed at him so intently… well, who could blame Shiro if his heart fluttered? 

Allura smiled gently. “As you can see, Ambassador Ezor, your General and mine have become close. I feel that they are ideally suited for ushering in a new era of peace.”

Ezor nodded, but the smile was gone. This meant that she was plotting something. “That makes what I’m about to show you even more difficult, but the Princess deserves to know of any possible traitors.” She gazed at Shiro. “Do you remember when you joined the Empire, General Shirogane?”

The right side of Shiro’s head felt like it was on fire. He tried to swallow the pain, but the wave of sudden nausea forced him upright, because Ancients, he was going to throw up—but then he felt too woozy to do anything but collapse. If Keith hadn’t caught him, his head would have hit the floor. 

“Your theatrics will get you nowhere, General,” Ezor warned him before plugging in a small crystal into the room’s monitor feed. Shiro’s image—pale, glassy-eyed, standing unnaturally stiff—fill the screen.

“I, Takashi Shirogane, renounce Princess Allura and her aggressive Coalition,” the Shiro on the monitor said flatly. “Only the Galra have the Ancient-given right to rule this world, and I dedicate my life to making sure that—”

Ezor was right. 

He was a traitor.

And he ran from the room before he could hurt anyone again.

\--

Shiro hid himself in the library, shaking under a table. He… he couldn’t remember that night, but there had to be a reason why he’d reacted like that. And the image of him… betraying Allura, Altea, **Keith** …

He wasn’t as bad as Ezor. He was worse.

“Shiro.” Keith’s voice was feather soft, which only made what was going to happen next even worse.

“I surrender,” Shiro whispered. “You can arrest me now.” Because what else would you do to traitors?

“Shiro.” Keith’s voice was even softer, somehow, as he crouched near Shiro. “Ezor was lying.”

Oh, how Shiro wished that she were. “Keith, you can’t make up a crystallized image.”

“No, but there are those you can force you to say things you don’t believe.” Allura crouched next to Keith. “Shiro, think back to that image. Who was in it?”

“I was a little focused on how I’d betrayed my country,” Shiro said darkly. “But there was Acxa, and… and Narti.”

Allura nodded. “Narti is Galra on her mother’s side, like Keith. We don’t know much about her father’s people, but they can bend your will to theirs, if they can touch you.” She took the crystal, and a pocket monitor, and… and Narti had a hand on his back. “This would also explain why you don’t remembering any of this, Shiro.” 

It seemed almost too good to be true. Shiro brought his knees closer to his chest. “How can you be so sure, Allura.”

Allura gave him a look. “I’m the direct descendent of Fala, the greatest mage of the Altea. I know thess things. I also know that my guards can’t keep Ezor in her seat forever. If you’re ready, we should go.”

“All right,” Shiro whispered. If Allura believed it, then so did he. “But what will we tell Ezor?”

Allura shrugged. “We will tell her the truth—but leave that to me.” She stood up, dusted off her skirt, and left Shiro alone with Keith.

Keith, who even if it had been mind control, he had betrayed. “Keith, forgive me. If I—” He paused when he felt Keith’s fingertips against his lips.

“The Empire twisted us all, Shiro. We have a chance to change that, if you’re willing.” He smiled, a little.

Shiro smiled back. “I think I am.”

\--

“Princess Allura,” Ezor crooned. “I’m wagering you have something to announce.”

“I do,” Allura admitted as she approached Ezor. “In private, in fact.”

Ezor shrugged. “Why am I not surprised?” She all but skipped after the princess, too cheerful to notice the ominous thud of the door behind them.

Allura sat in a plush pink chair primly. “Would you like some tea?”

Ezor sat opposite Allura. “Of course! In fact, I suspect I’ll be here more often.” Her smile broadened as she accepted the tea. “I mean, now that I’m blackmailing you and all.”

“Hm.” Allura sipped her tea. Yes, about that. I’ve already sent those image to my mystics, and a neutral party. The Olkari, they’ve had a decent relationship with the Empire for almost twenty deca-phoebs.” She sipped again. “They confirmed what I knew: your general twisted my general.” Allura handed Ezor the crystallized images from her people, and the Olkari. “His supposed defection—and Lotor forcing him to marry Keith—was all a ruse on your part to compromise my people.”

Ezor wasn’t smiling anymore. “How—”

Everyone kept asking her that question. “Because I’m magical. And can see through such an obvious falsehood. She gave Ezor a look that could have frozen the volcano the Guardian Spirit of Fire was born in. “If you ever threaten the spouse of General Kogane again, I will declare war.”

Ezor gripped the sides of her chair. “You wouldn’t—”

“Not on the Empire. Your house. I believe the Galra see that as perfectly reasonable and honorable. Your lands, your money, your titles. You will be the final causality of the Galra Empire-Altea Coalition War.” Allura put her cup away. “Not literally, of course. But what is a Galra without her title?” Nothing of all, of course.

There was a long pause. Allura prepared herself mentally for the moment that Ezor would attack her.

But instead, Ezor stood up, looking uncharacteristically weary. “Princess, I know when I’m beat.” She left without another word.

Allura highly doubted Ezor would stop—or if she did, someone else would take her place. But she would be ready. 

They had stolen one of her generals from her, once. They never would again.

\--

“Allura, I appreciate what you did, but you didn’t have to,” Shiro said.

“Yes, she did,” Keith argued, voice low but firm. “Otherwise, I would have killed Ezor for what she did to you.”

Shiro took a deep breath before he said, “I am choosing to interpret that as a poor attempt at macabre humor.” He turned his attention to Allura. “Aren’t you worried about repercussions?”

“Of course. But if I have to choose between that and being blackmailed, I’ll take the former.” Allura smiled slightly. “The story we’re telling that while you defected, it was in the hope of peace—and once that peace was achieved, you offered, er, yourself to Keith.”

Shiro looked down at his shoes, his face hot. “That’s true enough, I guess.”

Keith must have whispered something to Allura, because she left, leaving him alone with Shiro. “Shiro. Look at me.”

Shiro did what he was told.

There was no anger in Keith’s face, but maybe…frustration?

“Shiro.” Keith cleared his throat. “You were kidnapped and forced into marriage.”

“Keith, it’s fine—”

“No, it’s not. I never want you to feel like I’m forcing you to do this.” He looked at Shiro, for a moment. “If anything, I offered myself to you.”

Keith was gone before Shiro could ask what he meant.


End file.
